RETURN OF THE BOYBAND

With the release of their debut album Up All Night, boy band One Direction is giving Adele’s 21 a run for the number one spot on the charts. They are both currently neck in neck in selling 160,000
copies of their albums this week.
A year ago, Adele was beginning her streak atop the Billboard charts. One Direction had just finished placing third in the U.K. version of The X-Factor.
This year seems to be the year of the boyband comeback, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the extinction of the ‘90s era boy bands.
Bands such as One Direction, The Wanted and Fun have garnered buzz and delivered hits.
After having eccentric female singers, such as Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj, dominating the music scene in the last year, boybands are somehow getting massive attention from the younger generations.
Television is the prime key to their domination. One
Direction scored a development deal with Nickelodeon after
appearing on The Today Show. They have also secured the
musical guest slot for the April
7 episode of Saturday Night
Live and a guest starring stint on iCarly.
The Wanted have performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
and appeared on E!’s
Chelsea Lately. However, it wasn’t until FOX’s Glee covered their song “Glad You Came” on a recent episode that the boys managed to score their first top-10 hit stateside.
Glee also helped break Fun. After having their collaboration with Janelle Monae “We Are Young” covered by the Glee cast, the song skyrocketed to the
top of the Billboard Hot 100 songs. It is currently on its second week atop.
Although all three bands have a strong online presence with a combined three million followers on Twitter, they have also gone back to basics in promoting themselves.
One Direction recently wrapped a small mall tour in which
they visited their fans in malls across America. A recent visit to
Boston’s Natick Mall attracted more than 5,000 screaming fans.
The Wanted spent the
majority of their visit to America doing club performances, a
majority of them being gay clubs.
Another key factor in their domination is their key demographic: young teenage girls. These girls buy albums, singles, posters, concert tickets and even strands of their hair on eBay.
Current teen phenomenon Justin Bieber is busy
romancing teen-princess Selena Gomez and hinting at a more mature sound on his next
album Believe. His fans of three years are in the midst of
growing up with him, leaving a crop of newly turned teenage
girls looking for someone which to shriek over.
That is where these boy bands enter. Young girls
evidently love boys. They love boys and love a number of boys even more. And with a combined
13 boys in all three bands, it’s no wonder they are flocking to them. What makes you beautiful-One Direction